Changes
It is also a misconception to believe the screen was downsized in those games to gain processor resources... It was only done to use the Speccy graphics more easily, and we can doubt the code was (re-)designed so such a screen reduction would even gain CPU resources.
=the killer-list of the infamous speccy ports of death=
Examples :
*PacMania [[File:Pacmania title.png]][[File:Pac04.png]] Typical exemple, yet it managed to be a nice game despite this. The title screen and HUD shows the attributes colours (as artefacts...) and were almost completly unchanged, yet with less colours on screen than the Speccy version. Ironically, the game manages to display 6 colours in the 4 colours Mode1... Yet the game's area remains completely monocolour (coded in 1 bit) and "colour attributes artefacts" are still present.. *[[Black Tiger ]] : Bad, bad, bad, such a shame as the Arcade game was awesome. monochrome game with multicoloured HUD.
*PacMania : same as Black Tiger, yet even displaying Attributes artifacts/remains.
*Super HanG on : graphics Transparency/translucency
*HeroQuest : still has monochrome feeling (2 blue shades being used) while actually being properly 2 bit re-coded... Ditherings use 3 colours gradiants instead of the Speccy's 2, and the grey add a bit more colour feeling...sort of ... but it fails due to a poor colour strategy.
*Strider has recoloured sprites, displaying no attributes, but Backgrounds remains monochrome, yet the HUD trick enable a 6 colours display on screen.
*Shadow of the Beast : (perhaps...) No real 3-4 coloured ditherings or even "additional colours" thanks to dithering the 2 medium colours together in many graphics (Exteriors or for many sprites), yet the square speccy attributes are not displayed, while the speccy version remains monochrome (in game window, not HUD) in order to simply advert Colour clashes. Would have needed a few more development time perhaps.
==Good Job==
Those games are often more to be seen as proper Cross-Dev.
Graphics, despite sharing a common ancestry, are well redone, and take into account the Amstrad power.
Sometimes those games are not that well "ported", yet its concept and gameplay is such that this is not That important, the game is simply too good to be wasted by such detail as the use of Mode1, and it was still sufficiently re-done.
*Head over heels [[File: no Head Over Heels.png]] On the other hand, this one was the prime exemple of what every speccy port should have been. Even the C64 version was totally like the Speccy version (monocolor game's area) while the Amstrad graphics were perfectly recoloured to use so well the lack of colour attributes. Also as this games didn't need scrollings, the animation was almost as good as in other 8 bit versions, and colour palette often changed inks, to actually get a colourfull feeling all along the game. No attributes and the no-rastercolourchange policy enable to not waste CPU ressources uselessly, while the only 4 colours are cleverly chosen and used in a cartoon styled madness... *[[Deflektor ]] : could exemple of a good speccy "cross development", thanks to a clever concept. Could perhaps have been better yet the concept of the game makes it a clever port, also details like the Tape version loading parts or the good chiptunes enable a proper CPC experience.
*Switchblade : the GX4000 cartridge version is displaying extra features such as large vertical ditherings in a lot of Red shades (sky) or PLUS Hardwired sprites "patches" as extra coloured tiles...this is more than enough to get a properly coloured feeling.
